


Honey, I Shrunk The Villains!

by MangoKat



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24112357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MangoKat/pseuds/MangoKat
Summary: Part of the Team Red Family Series If you haven't read The Silence and Broken, this will probably be confusing for youThis fic is done for the Carmen Sandiego Kid challengeTeam Red meets with Team Crackle but an unexpected accident leave all eight villains de-aged. Now it's up to Team Red to care for them until they can figure out how to reverse it. Babies and cuteness ensues.Part of the Team Red Family Series
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	1. The Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> Authornote:
> 
> Hey guys, here's something a little different for you. This will be a very silly and lighthearted fic and so don't take it too seriously. It will likely have 5 parts in total.
> 
> This is part of Violetfics Carmen Sandiego Kid challenge in which the art or fic has to do with children. This is my contribution.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Honey, I Shrunk the Villains!**

**Chapter 1**

**The Disaster**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

  
  


“You sure about this, Carm?” Ivy asked, as their van came to a stop, “This seems like a trap to me…”

Carmen stared at the abandoned warehouse, but she didn’t seem concerned. “Crackle promised us a truce while we speak, and he’s never lied to us before. I want to show him he can trust us, and perhaps we can finally start getting along. I’m tired of being their enemy.”

“Foolishness,” Le Chèvre muttered, “You’re still far too trusting.”

Carmen blinked in shock, and then she grimaced at the not-so-subtle reminder of the incident in Kazakhstan. She had never been more ashamed of herself during that time, and she had promised everyone to be more careful in the future.

“I’ll show them enough trust to speak with them, but we’ll still be prepared for a fight if it comes to it,” she replied, averting her eyes from her teammates.

“We have your back!” Zack exclaimed.

There was a murmuring of agreement, and Carmen nodded.

“Shadowsan is going to be contacting us once his plane lands in Tokyo, and so we need to keep our coms turned on,” Julia informed them.

“It’s so great that his brother is finally willing to reconcile with him!” El Topo exclaimed, smiling wide, “I’m happy for him!”

Carmen returned the smile. “I am too. I just hope everything works out for him…”

“He’ll be fine,” Tigress said, rolling her eyes, “He’s only going to be gone for a month.”

“True,” Carmen acknowledged, “I know he can take care of himself.”

“Let’s just get this over with!” Chase grumbled, opening the car door.

“Everyone ready?” Carmen demanded, glancing around at the others.

When everyone nodded, she got out of the car, and once again looked up at the warehouse. Why Team Crackle decided to meet here was beyond her, but she had an uneasy feeling about this. She was glad Crackle was finally willing to talk to her, but she was worried about him having an ulterior motive.

“Okay, everyone, stay alert,” Carmen ordered, heading for the entrance.

Team Red cautiously entered the large warehouse not quite sure what to expect. Team Crackle rarely cooperated with them, and so it was  **extremely** unusual when Crackle asked to speak with Carmen in person. The two teams had a shaky truce at this time, and both agreed that there would be no fighting until talks had concluded.

As soon as they entered, Carmen saw all eight members of Team Crackle waiting in the center of the warehouse, a strange-looking device resting on the table near them. Crackle had his arms crossed against his chest, and he watched her through narrowed eyes as she approached. Neal smiled brightly at them and waved, but Dash elbowed him lightly in the gut, hissing something to the other man. Neal rolled his eyes, and then lowered his hand, not saying a word.

“Hello, Gray,” Carmen greeted a bit hesitantly.

Crackle shifted a bit, clearly agitated, but he made no move to approach her. Team Red stopped about fifty feet away, everyone on edge and the two teams simply stared at one another awkwardly.

“We have a problem,” Crackle finally stated.

“I’m listening,” Carmen replied, giving a glance to the device on the table.

Crackle followed her gaze and then gave a nod. “Yes, that’s the problem,” he confirmed.

“What is it?” Carmen demanded, “Is it a weapon?”

“I honestly have no idea, but I’m going with the assumption that it’s dangerous,” Crackle answered, frowning at the device. “We’ve been ordered to sneak this device into U.S Congress during their meeting in two day’s time.”

Carmen’s eyes widened, knowing the damage this could do to the country if all senators were wiped out. “You can’t do that!” she gasped. “You’d be killing over 100 people!”

Crackle scowled at her. “I know,” he snapped, “That’s why I’ve contacted you.”

Carmen’s posture relaxed. “Sorry, I was just surprised. What do you need our help with?”

Crackle let out a deep and aggravated sigh, and glared towards the device. “There’s no way I’m allowing my team to be used for mass murder. I want the device deactivated, but I have no idea what it does. I took the paneling off and looked at the wiring, but without knowing what it does, I didn’t think it was wise to touch anything.”

“And you want our help destroying it?” Carmen asked, raising a skeptical brow.

“No, I’m not letting you anywhere near this device!” Crackle responded sharply. “I want to speak with your tech guy and get him to take a look over com.”

Carmen immediately shook her head. “No, you know the deal. You  **never** involve Player in any scheme or mission.  **Ever** . We agreed on this.”

“That’s why I wanted to speak with you in person,” Crackle answered, “You can supervise everything we’re doing and listen in on everything being said to Player. I won’t break our agreement, but I’m worried this device will blow up or do something even worse if I make a mistake.”

Carmen crossed her arms, and then exchanged a look with the rest of her team. Chase shook his head, and Carmen gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

“No, give us the device and we’ll deactivate it,” Carmen ordered.

“Not a chance.” Crackle said firmly. “You’re still our enemy, and I’m not taking a chance by handing over a possible weapon.”

Carmen gave him a sad look. “Do you think I would ever hurt you, Gray?”

“I’m not even giving you the chance,” Crackled responded. “The device stays with us.”

Carmen slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry, Gray, but if you have a dangerous weapon, then we have to take it from you.”

Crackle’s whole body tensed. “I’d like to see you try!” he said lowly, drawing out his crackle rod.

Mime Bomb began slowly edging along against the far wall, none of Team Crackle noticing what he was doing yet. The device was resting on a table behind the villains, and Mime Bomb was slowly starting to close in on it. It was then that Roosevelt turned, grabbed a heavy crate and threw it as hard as he could at Mime Bomb. Mime Bomb dove out of the way, and then stared at Roosevelt with wide eyes from where he lay on the floor.

“Try that again and I won’t miss!” Roosevelt snarled, placing his hands on his hips.

“Hey man, not cool!” Zack yelled out. “You could have killed him!”

“Roosey’s aim is spot-on, ginger,” Neal replied, “He was never going to hit him.”

Mime Bomb slowly scooted backwards away from Team Crackle until he was a safe distance away and then got back to his feet. Zack stepped in front of him protectively, still glaring at Roosevelt angrily.

“Red, I’ll help them,” Player suddenly spoke up into their coms, “We don’t want that device going off in the middle of San Diego.”

Carmen frowned. “Player, I don’t think this is a good idea…”

“I think I should get a say in this,” Player said gently. “I appreciate your concern, but I think we should work together in this circumstance.”

Carmen frowned, but Player had proven many times that he was perfectly capable of making decisions for himself.

“I don’t like it,” Carmen said quietly, shooting the eight villains an uneasy glance.

“I need to do this,” Player said firmly, “If we won’t help them, they’ll likely try to disarm it themselves, and I just have a really bad feeling about it.”

Carmen hesitated, and then let out a sigh. “Okay, if you’re sure. I trust you, Player, and I’ll back you up on this.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Player confirmed.

Carmen turned her gaze to Crackle. “Player has agreed to help you,” she informed him.

Crackle nodded, and then pulled out his com. A few seconds later, the com rang and when Crackle answered it, Player’s face appeared on the screen.

“Hi, Graham,” the boy greeted.

“Hello,” Crackle replied politely, “I promise this isn’t a trick and I won’t put you in any harm.”

Player nodded. “Show me the device and I’ll take a look.”

Crackle turned and approached the table. Popping the shell off the device, he held the com close so Player could see the wires and chips inside.

“Oh, wow,” Player commented, “You weren’t joking about this thing! This is really complicated! Move the com slowly around it so I can take a better look.”

Crackle did as he was told and very slowly walked around the device so Player could see it from all angles.

“Do you know what it is?” Crackle demanded, when he was back to his original position.

“No idea,” Player responded, “But it doesn’t seem to be a bomb. From what I can tell, it’s supposed to concentrate something and then blast it outwards. It would have a fairly small range though, and so it wouldn’t have been able to affect the entire congress. Were you given a specific target?”

Crackle turned the com to face him and he shook his head. “No, Dr. Bellum simply ordered it to be left in the center of the assembled congress and then detonate it. I assumed it was a bomb.”

“Nope, definitely not a bomb,” Player replied, “I have no way of telling what this thing does without studying those microchips. Everything seems incredibly complicated, and I couldn’t even begin to guess what it does.”

This wasn’t the answer Crackle was hoping for and he frowned. “There’s no way to disarm it?”

“Well, I didn’t say that,” Player continued thoughtfully, “If we disconnect the device from its power-source, that should be enough to disarm it so you can safely disassemble it.”

“Excellent!” Crackle exclaimed in relief, “When I studied it myself, I already determined the power-source to be that odd-looking battery underneath the yellow wires. I was worried that a sudden loss of power would cause it to detonate.”

Player shook his head. “No, you should be fine since there doesn’t seem to be a bomb. Snip the yellow wires straight across and the device should become completely harmless.”

Crackle opened his nearby toolkit and pulled out the wire cutters. Neal leaned in so he could see the screen of the com and waved at Player.

“You sure about this, Tiny Tim?” he asked worriedly.

“Absolutely,” Player responded, “This isn’t a bomb.”

“Are we really going to trust a child?” Otterman demanded, giving an uneasy look to the device. “How could he  **possibly** know enough about this device to make that decision? He could get us all killed!”

“It does seem a bit foolish to listen to the advice of a kid.” Dash agreed. “I think we should get a second opinion.”

“A second opinion?” Theodore repeated in confusion, “From who?”

“I don’t know! Someone!” Dash snapped.

“I trust him,” Crackle stated, handing Otterman the com so he could pick up the device.

Otterman squinted down at the screen at Player, and gave him a frown. “Where did you study to learn all this?” he demanded. “Are you even qualified to offer us this advice?”

Moose Boy ruffled Otterman’s hair. “Relax, Sven, stop worrying.”

Otterman scowled at his partner, and then reached up to fix his messed up hair. “I just don’t like this,” he defended. “I don’t trust  **anything** that woman makes.”

“What if there’s a secondary power-source?” Dash suddenly asked. “Could cutting the wires from the main battery, cause the device to go off?”

“It’s a possibility…” Crackle admitted, his hand hesitating over the wires, “There’s not really a way to dismantle the device to look for one however.”

“What if we just toss this thing out to sea and then forget about it?” Paper Star suggested.

“No, whatever this device does, it can’t be allowed to fall into innocent hands. We have to make sure it’s destroyed.” Crackle responded.

Crackle then turned his gaze back to Player. “Alright, I’m going to cut the wires...hopefully you were right.”

“If this kills me, I  **swear** I’m coming back to haunt you all!” Otterman threatened.

Neal rolled his eyes. “Being haunted by the world’s lamest ghost, a fate certainly worse than death!”

Otterman shot him a scowl but made no further comment. 

“Okay, here I go…” Crackle announced.

Everyone took a collective breath as there was a loud snip, and no one moved as they waited. When nothing happened, they relaxed and Neal let out a laugh. 

“Well,  **that** was rather anti-climatic!”

“Good.” Crackle responded, setting the wire cutters aside. “Thank you for your help, Player. We’ll go ahead and dismantle this and dispose of i-”

He cut off suddenly when the device suddenly began to beep and blink wildly, and everyone turned to stare at it.

“What’s wrong with it?” Dash demanded, “Is it detonating?!”

Crackle frowned and picked it back up. “I’m not sure,” he admitted, “It wouldn’t be able to blink like this if it was cut off from power. There must have been a secondary power source.”

“Put it down before it explodes or something!” Otterman hissed at him. “I don’t trust  **any** of Bellum’s inventions!”

“If it was going to explode, it would done so already,” Crackle said, but he set it down on the table all the same.

The device started making a high-pitched whirring noise, and everyone’s eyes widened.

“RUN!” Crackle yelled.

Team Red turned to run for the door and Team Crackle did the same. There was suddenly a powerful cracking sound and a red light filled the warehouse as the device exploded. Team Red turned around at the sound just in time to see Team Crackle struck by the red blast of light. To their surprise and horror, all eight villains disappeared, their clothes falling into a pile where they stood.

“Oh...oh my god!” Tigress exclaimed.

“There were vaporized!” Zack gasped.

“They’re dead...they’re all dead!” El Topo cried out in horror.

Carmen felt her chest seize up as she stared at the piles of clothes. They were gone. Crackle was gone forever. A pain like a knife tore through her heart, and Carmen covered her face in complete despair. Crackle had been her best friend in the academy, and she’d always cared about him deeply. She’d always held onto the hope that they would someday be on the same side, but now that would never happen again. Crackle was gone. She thought of the faces of Team Crackle one by one, and she felt tears come to her eyes. She felt like a complete failure, and when she turned her gaze to the others, she saw tears in her teammates eyes. They’d all been friends once, and Carmen knew they would all mourn the loss of their former friends and former colleagues. 

Suddenly there was a tiny noise from one of the piles of clothing. Carmen’s head snapped to look at the clothes and saw it was Dash’s clothes. There was another noise, and it sounded like a weak mew of a cat, and Carmen furrowed her brow. 

“What was that?” Ivy demanded.

Carmen cautiously made her way over to Dash’s clothes and there was another noise, and the clothes moved a bit. Kneeling down, Carmen lifted Dash’s coat and discovered a newborn baby there. Carmen’s eyes widened in shock, and she simply stared at the baby as it squirmed and made another noise of complaint.

“A baby?!” Chase exclaimed leaning over her shoulder.

Carmen then glanced at the other piles of clothes and scrambled for Crackle’s pile. Inside Crackle’s clothes, she found a sleeping newborn. Carmen was speechless and she and the others began uncovering baby after baby in the piles of clothes. When they were done, Team Red stared down at the eight babies lined up at their feet and had no idea what to say.

“Well, shit,” Zack stated.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**TBC**

**Chapter 2 will be posted within the next few minutes**


	2. The Baby Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part of the Team Red Family Series If you haven't read The Silence and Broken, this will probably be confusing for you
> 
> This fic is done for the Carmen Sandiego Kid challenge
> 
> Team Red meets with Team Crackle but an unexpected accident leave all eight villains de-aged. Now it's up to Team Red to care for them until they can figure out how to reverse it. Babies and cuteness ensues.
> 
> Part of the Team Red Family Series

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Honey, I Shrunk the Villains**

**Chapter 2**

**The Baby Stage**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Team Red stared down at the row of babies, no one knowing what to do. Every baby was sound asleep except for Dash, who was still squirming and fussing, clearly uncomfortable with being wrapped up in the pile of clothes.

“Is...is this permanent?!” Chase asked, kneeling down in front of the babies.

“I...I don’t know…” Carmen replied, also kneeling down.

“What do we do?” El Topo asked, “Can we reverse it?”

Ivy picked up the device, or rather what was left of it and grimaced. “Yeah, there’s no fixing this thing,” she announced, “The whole thing is melted and in hundreds of pieces.”

“Player?” Carmen asked, pressing her com, “Are you there?”

There was no answer.

“Player? Can you hear me?”

Once again there was silence.

“The blast must have damaged our coms,” she commented with a frown.

Pulling out her phone, she dialed Player’s number and a few seconds later Player’s tear-streaked face appeared on the screen.

“Red, I’m sorry!” he said in despair, “It’s all my fault! I could have killed them! They listened to me and now look what happened! They could have died! I could have caused them all to die!”

“Player, it’s not your fault-” Carmen started to say.

“Red, I’m sorry, but I gotta go radio silent for a while. I’m so sorry.”

Player disconnected the call, and Carmen stared at the blank screen in shock. She immediately tried calling him back, but there was no answer. She tried over and over, but her calls were ignored. Ivy placed a hand on her shoulder, and Carmen turned distraught eyes to her.

“It wasn’t his fault!”

“We all know that and Player will realize that too once he calms down,” Ivy assured her. “Give him some time, because right now we have a bigger problem…”

Dash began making a squeaky little cry, and Chase reached out towards him. He carefully picked up the baby, and wrapped him in the designer silk shirt before cradling him in his arms. As Chase stared down at the tiny baby he held, a sudden wave of sadness came over him, remembering his own baby that was long gone. 

“Shh, shh,” he said softly to the baby, “You’re going to be okay.”

Gently rocking him, Dash grizzled unhappily for a few moments before finally going quiet. Chase thought of his beautiful dark-haired baby that he’d never see again, and his stomach twisted painfully. She’d been such a calm and quiet baby, and Chase had loved her more than anything on this Earth. When she was taken from him, it had destroyed him beyond repair.

Using a gentle finger, Chase rubbed the baby’s soft cheek, wishing he could once again hold his little girl. Although he was now quiet, Dash was wide awake, and he stared up at Chase with unfocused blue eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Chase assured him, “Everything will be alright. You’re safe.”

Julia rested a hand on Chase's shoulder, her gaze concerned, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Chase offered her a sad smile, but he said nothing more.

“We need to get Shadowsan back here!” Zack said worriedly, “I have no idea what to do right now!”

Ivy punched him in the shoulder. “We’re not interrupting Shadowsan’s visit with his brother! Shadowsan has waited decades for this opportunity, and we’re not going to ruin it for him!”

“But-”

“No buts!” Ivy hissed, “We can handle this ourselves!”

“I don’t know anything about children,” Le Chevre commented, giving a look of complete disgust to the babies.

“Nor do I…” Carmen admitted, “But we can deal with this problem without bothering Shadowsan. There must be a way to fix this…”

Tigress leaned in closely to Dash, and then stared into his eyes thoughtfully. 

“Do you think their minds are still in there?”

Carmen frowned and then scooted over beside Chase so she could stare down at Dash.

“Dash? Can you hear me?” she asked.

The baby’s eyes weren’t very focused but he did react to her voice by glancing in her direction.

“Blink if you can understand me,” Carmen ordered.

Dash didn’t blink or give any indication he knew what she was saying.

“I need to know if you’re still in there, Dash,” Carmen said, “Give me some sort of reaction if you understand me.”

When Dash still did nothing, Chase frowned. “I don’t think he remembers anything.”

“What are we supposed to do with them?” Le Chevre asked.

“Well, we certainly can’t leave them here!” El Topo said in alarm.

“I wasn’t suggesting we leave them here, but we can’t keep them!” Le Chevre responded.

“Maybe this will wear off in a few hours?” Carmen suggested.

“And if it doesn’t?” Tigress demanded.

Carmen went silent and turned her gaze down to Crackle. If none of the villains returned to their proper ages, then it would be like they’d been killed. Everything they knew, everything they loved, everything they had experienced would all be gone. They would have to relearn everything and start a whole new life.

“We’ll deal with that when it comes to it,” she answered, reaching down to pick up Crackle.

“Support his neck!” Chase said worriedly.

Carmen had never held a baby before, and it felt strange to her as she stared down at Crackle, her former friend and enemy now completely helpless.

“Let’s get them back to the base and we can figure things out from there,” Carmen ordered, “Everyone grab a baby, and let’s get out of here.”

Mime Bomb quickly backed away from the babies, and instead picked up the destroyed device and began gathering as many of the pieces as he could find. Everyone else knelt down and picked up the nearest baby, wrapping them in their now too-big clothes, but no one looked very comfortable with it. Chase seemed completely on edge as he walked around making sure the babies were being held properly, and he absentmindedly rocked Dash as he did so.

They left the warehouse and then carefully crawled into the car, holding the babies tightly in their arms. Since Mime Bomb was the only one without a baby, he got into the driver’s seat and started the ignition.

“Drive slowly!” Chase ordered, “This is very dangerous without car seats! If we crash, the children could be seriously injured!”

Mime Bomb grimaced down at the nearest baby, but he nodded all the same. He drove extremely carefully back to their base, and then simply watched as everyone carried the babies inside. He sort of shuffled after them uncertainly, and then simply stood in the doorway awkwardly watching as everyone laid the babies down on the couch.

Mime Bomb had never been this close to a baby before and it was honestly making him extremely uncomfortable. He knew absolutely nothing about them other than what he’d seen on tv, and he  **really** didn’t want to be there.

Carmen stared down at the eight babies lined up on the couch, noting that newborns all looked pretty much the same, and if it wasn’t for the clothes they were wrapped in, she’d have no idea who was who.

“How are we going to do this?” Zack demanded, “Are we going to take turns or do we each get one to take care of?”

Carmen hadn’t really considered that. “I don’t know… I suppose it would be easiest if everyone gets their own to take care of.”

“I don’t know anything about babies!” Le Chevre protested, “I never even had any younger siblings and so I have no idea how to care for an infant!”

El Topo actually seemed a little excited as he stared down at the babies and he gave an affectionate nudge to his partner. “I love babies!” he commented, “I used to watch my younger brothers, and babysit the neighbourhood children for extra cash. I can teach you everything I know!”

“They could turn back at any time,” Tigress pointed out, “I vote we just wait and see what happens.”

“Well, they still need to be cared for in the meantime,” Chase pointed out.

“I agree,” Julia responded, kneeling down so she could look at the babies a little more closely. “They’re completely helpless, and depending on us to care for them.”

“I’m still weirded out by all this,” Tigress commented with a frown, “Why would Dr. Bellum create such a stupid invention?”

“She’s crazy,” Le Chevre responded with a snort.

“She was probably trying to take down congress for some reason. There has to be more to this than we know about.” Carmen replied.

“I doubt it,” Le Chevre commented.

“I think it would be better if we each focused our attention on just one baby,” Chase stated, “There’s nine of us and so this makes the most sense. Antonio and I will help the rest of you if you need it since we have the most experience.”

Carmen nodded. “Hopefully they’ll be back to themselves in a few hours.”

“And if they’re not?” Tigress demanded.

Carmen frowned. “Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Ivy looked down at the babies and crossed her arms. “I don’t know about this, Carm… How are we going to decide who gets who?”

“Maybe we should draw names to make it fair?” Julia suggested.

“That seems fair to me,” Antonio commented.

There were some less than enthusiastic murmurs of agreement, and so Carmen grabbed the nearby notepad sitting on the coffee table. She wrote down all the names of Team Crackle and then tore the names out of the notepad and folded them over. Zack tossed her an empty popcorn bowl and she dropped the papers down into it.

“Okay, who wants to go first?”

“I will!” El Topo volunteered, sticking his hand into the bowl without hesitation. 

He grabbed a paper and then opened it, glancing down at the name.

“I have Paper Star!” he announced.

Le Chevre’s eyes widened in concern and he shot an uneasy glance down to the baby in question. Paper Star was asleep like the rest, but he still frowned at her.

“I’ve never cared for a little girl before!” El Topo exclaimed excitedly. “She’s so cute!”

El Topo immediately reached down and scooped her into his arms, her brow wrinkling in her sleep as she was jostled.

“Who’s next?” Carmen asked.

Chase stepped forward and selected a slip of paper. When he unfolded it, he hesitated and then glanced down at the babies.

“Otterman,” he said, picking up his assigned baby.

Tigress reached in and grabbed a paper, immediately scowling when she saw the name. “Dammit, I got Neal!” she complained. “Can I pick again?”

“Fair is fair, Sheena,” Carmen answered, holding the bowl out towards Zack.

“Theodore!” Zack announced, looking down at the chubby twins. “Er...which one is Teddy?”

“The one with the ‘T’ on his jacket, dumbass!” Tigress retorted, still bitter about getting Neal.

Zack laughed. “Oh, right,” he said, picking up the baby. 

The twins were by far the largest babies, and Zack figured they must have weighed about fifteen pounds.

“Hey, Mime Bomb, you should pick your paper next to see if you get Roose!” he said, turning around.

Mime Bomb wasn’t there. 

“Mime Bomb?” Zack questioned, glancing around. “Where’d Mime Bomb go?”

Everyone looked to the open door and when Zack glanced out the window, it was just in time to see the car pulling out of the driveway.

“Where’s he going?!” he asked in surprise. “He didn’t even say anything!”

“I have no idea…” Carmen said in concern. “I’ll send him a text.”

Le Chevre stuck his hand in the bowl and then opened his piece of paper. “I have Dash,” he stated, very  **very** carefully picking the baby up.

“I guess I’m next…” Ivy said, grabbing her paper and opening it. “I have Roosevelt.”

“Oh neat, the siblings get the siblings!” Zack laughed.

Julia chose her paper next. “Moose Boy.” she announced.

Carmen stared down at the one remaining baby knowing this must be fate. “And I have Crackle…” she said softly, picking him up.

Taking a seat on the couch to make it easier to hold him, she pulled out her com and texted Mime Bomb. She didn’t have to wait long and five minutes later, there was a response.

“He says he went to the store to get baby supplies…” she said a bit skeptically.

“Does he even know what a baby needs?” Chase demanded, pulling out his own com. “I’m going to send him a list. We have no way of knowing how long Team Crackle are going to be like this, and at the very least we’re going to need diapers, clothing and formula.”

Tigress’ eyes widened, the thought of having to change a baby not occurring to her until just now. “Oh,  **hell** no!” she exclaimed, glancing down at Neal. “I am  **not** changing any diapers!”

This seemed to bother Chase on a very deep level and turned a withering glare towards her. “Then what will you do? Leave him dirty indefinitely? Let him get sick?”

Tigress shifted guiltily and averted her eyes. “...no,” she replied, reaching down to pick up Neal. “But if I have to change a single diaper, I’m going to be smacking Neal the second he’s back to his rightful age!”

Chase gave her a nod, and then glanced down when the baby in his arms began to squirm. Otterman was by far the smallest baby, and without opening his eyes he began to grizzle unhappily. Chase sat down beside Carmen as he rocked the baby, and he began texting Mime Bomb hurriedly. The rocking did no good and within a few minutes, the baby was wailing loudly.

“Babies this young need to be fed frequently,” Chase commented, sounding worried, “He’s probably hungry. I asked Mime Bomb to be as fast as possible.”

Chase rocked and spoke gently to the baby and after a few minutes, the twins woke and joined in the crying. The noise was enough to wake the others and soon there were eight hungry newborns demanding to be fed. No amount of soothing or rocking helped, and everyone kept glancing to the door, hoping Mime Bomb wouldn’t be much longer.

After fifteen minutes of terrible, migraine inducing noise, Mime Bomb finally entered the base with the supplies. He took one look into the room with all the crying babies and chaos, and then set down his purchases and left back out the door again without so much as a wave. 

Not even bothering to question it, Chase hurried for the bags and grabbed up a box of formula. Ripping into it, he pulled out one of the newborn formula bottles and removed the plastic from over it. The formula was room temperature and safe to use, and so he immediately placed the bottle’s nipple into Otterman’s mouth. The baby tried to spit it out a few times, but when Chase persisted, he finally quieted to eat. The others watched a moment and then swarmed over to grab some of the formula.

Every baby accepted the formula except for Dash who had worked himself into an absolute fit and wouldn’t take it. Le Chevre was getting frustrated and worried, not knowing what to do. He tried again and again, but the baby simply wouldn’t take it.

“What’s wrong with him?” Le Chevre demanded, “He won’t even try it!”

Chase wandered over and observed the rage the baby was displaying. “That’s not what he wants,” he stated. “I believe he’s trying to tell you something else…”

Le Chevre set the bottle aside for a moment and unswaddled the baby from the shirt. He then discovered what the baby had been trying to tell him.

“Oh…” he stated, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Ugh…”

“I think perhaps we should diaper all the babies before there are any more accidents…” El Topo suggested with a wince.

“Ugh,” Le Chevre said again, holding Dash out at arm's length as he crossed the room to where there were a few packages of diapers.

It was clear Mime Bomb had no idea what size to get because he purchased 5 different packages of diapers. Reading the weights on the sides of the packages, Le Chevre lifted Dash up and down a few times and estimated he weighed about six pounds. Grabbing the smallest size, he ripped into the bag and pulled out a very tiny diaper.

Le Chevre then gave a helpless look towards El Topo who chuckled, and then approached him. 

“Here, mi amor, let’s switch for a moment.”

El Topo took Dash from him and handed over Paper Star who was still hungrily drinking from the bottle. El Topo showed the others how to clean and diaper a baby, and everyone quickly took turns until all babies were properly diapered. El Topo then switched back with Le Chevre and Dash was still fussing, but his cries were a lot more plaintive now. This time when Le Chevre offered him the bottle, he accepted it.

Finally there was silence and everyone heaved a breath of relief as the babies went back to sleep now that they were full. It didn’t last long however, and thirty minutes later, Dash woke up shrieking. The cry was somehow different, and Le Chevre offered him a bottle which was refused, and his diaper was dry and so he had no idea what to do.

Not wanting to wake the others, he brought Dash to his bedroom with him, trying unsuccessfully to quiet the baby. Dash was red in the face and he had his little hands clenched into fists as he squirmed and cried. After two hours of non-stop screaming, he fell asleep and Le Chevre breathed a sigh of relief. Ten minutes later, Dash was screaming again, and Le Chevre was getting frustrated. 

Dash would accept a bit of formula and then go right back to screaming again. It was then that Le Chevre realized Dash was slightly bigger than before. He now looked to be about a month old, and he was relieved to know this wasn’t going to be permanent. 

Out in the living room, Zack and Ivy were feeding the twins their fourth bottle, and the twins were now massive compared to the other babies. All the babies were clearly getting older, and everyone was hoping they’d be back to normal by the end of the day.

“Ugh, all these guys do is eat and need to be changed!” Ivy complained, once again reaching for a diaper. “This is like the tenth time I’ve had to change him!”

Theodore chose that exact moment to vomit all over himself and Zack let out a yelp of disgust. Roosevelt then did the same as his brother and Ivy let out a groan.

“Watch Roose for a sec, bro, I’m going to grab new onesies. Strip ‘em down for me, will ya?”

“Yeah,” Zack agreed as Ivy walked away to leave her brother to watch the twins for a moment.

Mime Bomb had been back four times with more supplies, but he always disappeared again before anyone could get him to help. Ivy grabbed new onesies from the many bags of supplies, and then came back to see her brother had moved the twins down onto the carpet as he removed the soiled clothes.

“Which one is mine, bro?” Ivy asked, kneeling down beside him.

Zack then hesitated and stared down at the completely identical twins with wide eyes. He seemed alarmed and looked from one to the other. “Um...this one?” he asked, pointing to one.

Ivy’s eyes widened. “You mixed them up?!”

Zack winced and stared at the babies, but he honestly couldn’t remember which one was his. “Oops?”

Ivy gave him a smack on the shoulder. “Now we don’t know which one is which!” 

Zack rubbed at his shoulder and frowned at her. “Well, does it really matter?”

“They’re getting bigger, bro, and now we have no idea what to call them! We can’t call them by the wrong name!”

“Oh...good point.” Zack said guiltily, “They look the same…”

Ivy heaved a sigh and then looked closely at the two babies, trying to find any clue at all to their identity. To her relief she spotted a bit of jam stuck in one of the babies’ hair from when Zack had eaten a sandwich. She now knew this was Theodore.

“That one’s yours!” she said pointing.

“You sure?” Zack asked skeptically.

“Positive.” Ivy replied, “But how are we going to make sure this doesn’t happen again?”

Zack thought a moment and then a look of realization crossed his face. “I got it!” he exclaimed, getting up and crossing the room.

Only a moment later he was back with a Sharpie. Uncapping it, he drew a giant ‘A’ across Roosevelt’s chest and then drew a giant ‘B’ on Theodore’s chest.

“There!” he exclaimed proudly.

“Dude, you just drew on a baby with a marker!”

“Yeah, but at least we won’t get them mixed up anymore!” Zack defended as he cleaned Theodore up.

Ivy sighed, and simply shook her head as he cleaned and dressed her own twin. “I can’t believe you drew on a baby,” she muttered to herself.

Chase had been very quiet over the past couple hours, and he simply sat in the nearby armchair looking down at the baby in his arms. He had been the one to rock his daughter to sleep most nights, and the familiar weight of a baby in his arms felt right but also very  **very** wrong at the same time. He was glad he didn’t get Paper Star because he honestly wasn’t sure he would have been able to handle caring for another baby girl. Chase lightly touched Otterman’s dark hair that had been growing thicker over the past few hours, and knew he wouldn’t be caring for him too long.

Otterman’s blue eyes looked up at him as he drank from the bottle, and he was alert as his hands clumsily reached out towards him. Chase took one of the tiny hands in his own, and he smiled when the little fingers closed around his thumb. Chase leaned in close to the baby as he spoke nonsense words to him, and to his surprise the baby smiled up at him.

“He smiled!” Chase exclaimed in delight, glancing over to the others.

“Good, maybe they’ll be back to the right age soon!” Tigress commented, glaring down at Neal who simply looked up at her with wide eyes.

“You have to admit they haven’t been that bad,” Julia commented, adjusting the heavy baby in her arms.

“Yeah, Jean Paul has it the worst.” Zack agreed. “I don’t think Dash has stopped screaming once.”

Ivy let out a snort. “Fussy adult, fussy baby.”

“I wonder if I should go help him?” El Topo wondered, glancing towards the bedrooms where the crying could be heard.

“Leave him be,” Tigress snapped, “We don’t want Dash causing a chain reaction with these twerps!”

El Topo frowned and then looked down at Paper Star who was sleeping in his arms. She’d been incredibly easy to care for so far and so it made him feel guilty about Le Chevre.

It was then that they heard furious yelling in French coming from the other room, Le Chevre clearly at the end of his ropes.

“Can someone watch Paper Star for a moment?” El Topo asked, getting up from the couch. “I’m going to check on Jean Paul.”

Chase reached out an arm and El Topo passed the baby over to him, Chase now comfortably holding both babies, one in each arm. El Topo waited a moment to make sure Paper Star wouldn’t wake and then he made his way towards the bedroom to help out his partner. When he opened the door, he discovered Jean Paul laying facedown on the bed in utter defeat, Dash laying beside him wailing uncontrollably.

“Mi amor?” El Topo called out softly.

Le Chevre didn’t move, but he did let out a loud groan. 

“I thought I would come to see if I could help,” El Topo offered.

“How much jail-time would I get for dropping a baby down a well?” Le Chevre asked tiredly, “I  **really** hate this baby.”

El Topo knew he wasn’t serious and rolled his eyes. Approaching, he scooped Dash into his arms and began rocking him. Dash had worked himself up into an absolute frenzy, and after thirty minutes of cooing and comforting, he finally fell asleep. Le Chevre let out a deep breath of relief.

“You are a miracle worker, mon amour!” he exclaimed, finally sitting up.

El Topo didn’t answer however, his eyes on Dash as they baby squirmed and scrunched his face up in his sleep. He clearly wasn’t sleeping well, and El Topo frowned in concern.

“Something’s wrong,” he stated. “He’s in pain.”

Le Chevre’s eyes widened, and he was to his feet in an instant. “I didn’t do anything to him, I swear! I wasn’t  **really** going to hurt him!”

El Topo offered him a smile. “I know you’d never hurt a baby, Jean Paul. Something is definitely wrong however.”

El Topo rubbed the baby’s belly gently and Dash twitched like it hurt and immediately began to cry again.

“The formula is giving him tummy pains,” El topo said in realization.

Le Chevre glanced to the nearby formula bottle in alarm. “Was the formula rotten?!”

El Topo shook his head as he once again began calming the baby down. “Many babies have a dairy allergy. I’m ashamed I didn’t think of this sooner. He needs a soy based formula.”

Le Chevre turned his eyes to Dash and now understood why the baby had been crying. He’d been in pain for hours and he hadn’t even thought of that.

“I can’t do this, Antonio, I’m not suited to caring for children.”

“Nonsense, Jean Paul, you did great, and you were  **so** patient! You will learn from this, and now you’ll know what to look for!”

“What can we do for the pain?” Le Chevre asked, looking down at the fussing baby.

“I’m going to ask Mime Bomb to make a run to the store for new formula. The babies are all getting older and soon they'll need to start eating baby food as well. Try him on a bit of the baby cereal, and hopefully he’s old enough to handle it. Once he starts on the soy, he should get better fairly quickly.”

Le Chevre reached out his arms for the baby and El Topo passed Dash back over to him. “Thank you, mon amour…”

“I need to check on Paper Star, but I’ll be back once the new formula is here. There should be a few bottles of bottled pablum in the supplies”

Le Chevre nodded, a lot more patient towards the crying now that he knew there was a reason for it. El Topo pulled his com out of his pocket and began texting Mime Bomb as he headed back to the living room. Chase looked up at him when he returned, and El topo saw he was now feeding Paper Star.

“Hey beautiful girl!” El Topo greeted, offering her a gentle smile.

To everyone’s surprise, she returned the smile and squirmed in Chase’s hold, clearly wanting to be passed over to El Topo. Chase held her out, and El Topo took the baby into his arms, cooing over her as she smiled up at him.

“Is Jean Paul surviving in there?” Carmen asked, trying to keep hold of the squirming Crackle in her arms.

“Dash is allergic to dairy and it was causing colic,” El Topo explained, “I texted Mime Bomb to bring some soy formula and more supplies. Once his little belly feels better, he should calm down.”

“My daughter had colic,” Chase commented with a frown. “It was terrible to see her in that much pain.”

All the babies seemed to be around two or three months old now, and as El Topo fussed over Paper Star, there was suddenly a babyish giggle. El Topo seemed delighted and gave her belly a tickle just so he could hear it again. Everyone stared in surprise as she laughed and laughed, and then suddenly Crackle joined in, still squirming wildly in Carmen’s arms. This caused Carmen to laugh and she adjusted Crackle so he was sitting up in her arms, and he waved his arms wildly in all directions, large toothless grin in place.

“Well, at least he’s a happy baby,” Carmen commented in delight.

“He’s certainly grouchy enough as an adult.” Ivy commented in amusement.

When Mime Bomb finally entered the base, lugging more bags and boxes, he glanced towards the seven laughing babies, and then quietly headed to his bedroom, lest anyone try to pass him a baby. El Topo found the new formula, and then headed for Le Chevre while still holding Paper Star, hoping this would fix the problem. Dash was still crying and fussing, but when offered a bottle, he did accept it.

“Come back out with us, mi amor,” El Topo invited, “You can at least watch some television with us.”

“I don’t want Dash upsetting the others,” Le Chevre explained, “Maybe once he settles down we’ll come out.”

Le Chevre’s tone was a lot softer than it normally was, and it was clear he was sympathizing with the baby. Paper Star was glancing all around the room curiously as she gurgled and smiled over at Le Chevre.

“Now  **that** is just disturbing…” Le Chevre commented, remembering the homicidal woman.

“Aw, she’s sweet,” El Topo disagreed, “Look at that cute smile!”

Le Chevre sighed, and then glanced down at Dash who scowled back at him. There were no cute smiles for  **him** , that was for sure.

“They’re getting big,” Le Chevre pointed out, “I’ve already had to go up 2 diaper sizes.”

El Topo nodded. “Carmen is hoping they'll be back to their proper ages by tomorrow.”

“Hopefully,” Le Chevre said with another sigh, “This is exhausting.”

“We get to see cute babies though in the meantime,” El Topo told him with a wink.

Le Chevre rolled his eyes and didn’t comment, simply watching as Dash drank. El Topo left the room and headed back to the living room, and smiled as he saw Chase speaking softly to Otterman. Chase was clearly a good father and it upset him to think of how horrible it must have been for him to lose his daughter.

El Topo sat down next to Carmen who struggled to hold Crackle still as he babbled and stretched out his limbs in all directions like a starfish. He was by far the most active baby, and his limbs were always flailing, and several times Carmen accidentally got a tiny hand to the face.

El Topo laughed. "At least he's happy!"

Carmen laughed as well. "True!"

Two hours later, Le Chevre joined them in the living room, a smiling Dash in his arms, the now six month old completely alert and content looking.

“He’s looking a lot better,” El Topo commented.

“I think his stomach pains are finally gone,” Le Chevre said in relief.

Most of the babies, except for the Twins and Otterman, were now sitting up on their own, and Carmen had Crackle seated beside her on the couch as he chewed on a teething ring. 

Neal was sitting beside Crackle and was an incredibly quiet baby and he watched the others around him uncertainly, his little hand holding tightly onto Tigress’ shirt. If anyone spoke to him or looked directly at him, he seemed to shrink and would make a little noise of protest, trying to hide in Tigress’ side. She was getting to be surprisingly patient with him, and when he began displaying this behaviour, she was surprised and skeptical.

“Nice try, Neal, you are  **not** shy! You’re not fooling anyone.”

Neal kept rubbing at his eyes, and pulling a face, but he wasn’t crying and so Tigress wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. When he did it for seemingly the 20th time, she finally picked him up so she could look in his eyes to see if there was anything there. What she discovered caused her to let out a curse.

“What? What is it?” Carmen demanded, “Is there something in his eye?”

“There sure is…” Tigress replied with a concerned frown. “Contacts.”

Everyone turned to stare at her in horror, realizing the baby had them stuck in his eyes this whole time.

“I didn’t know Neal wore contacts,” she commented, peering at them with a frown. “We need to get those out…”

“Look at those talons, you can’t put your fingers anywhere  **near** a baby’s eyes!” Chase exclaimed, pointing to Sheena’s impressive nails.

“Well, we certainly can’t leave them there!” Sheena retorted, “Who wants to help?”

Everyone winced, and there was no answer. They couldn’t imagine trying to pry a contact out of a baby’s eyes.

“I’ve never used contacts…” Carmen admitted. “I don’t know how to remove them.”

There was a murmur of agreement from everyone else. Sheena stared at Neal’s big grey eyes, and then let out a sigh.

“Can someone watch him for a moment? I’m going to the bathroom.”

“I got him, Sheena,” Carmen assured her, “But what are we going to do about the contacts?”

“I’ll deal with it when I get back!” she snapped, getting up from her seat.

Neal made a tiny noise of distress when she walked away from him, looking over at Carmen like she was something scary.

“It’s okay, Neal,” Carmen assured him, “Sheena will be back in just a minute.”

Neal’s eyes began to water, but surprisingly enough he didn’t cry, simply staring towards the door where Tigress had gone. Suddenly there was a loud ‘THWUMP’ from beside Carmen, and then there was screaming. When they looked over, they saw Crackle had rolled off the couch and landed on the floor. Carmen let out a terrified gasp and then grabbed Crackle up as he bawled hysterically. She quickly looked him over but didn’t see any blood or bruises. Despite not finding any injuries, Crackle continued to scream bloody murder.

“We need to get him to a hospital!” Carmen cried out in a panic. “I only looked away for a moment! I didn’t mean to, I swear! He must have broken something!”

Chase approached and then took the baby from her so he could look him over. After rocking and shushing him softly, Crackle quickly calmed down and relaxed into the hold.

“He’s alright,” Chase told her, “He just had a bad fright. Now that the babies are more active, you really can’t take your eyes off them for even an instant.”

Crackle was still sniveling a bit but he allowed himself to be passed back over to Carmen. 

“Aw, Graham, I’m sorry,” she told him, rocking him gently. “I’ll do better, I promise.”

Crackle seemed content to be held for the moment and within minutes his eyes were getting heavier. When Tigress returned from the bathroom, she glanced to Neal and then to Crackle.

“What happened? Who was crying?”

“Graham took a little fall, but he’s okay,” El Topo assured her. “No one’s hurt.”

“How was Neal?” Tigress asked in concern.

“Neal was perfect,” Carmen answered. 

Tigress reached out towards him and Neal instantly held out his arms to be picked up. It was then that everyone noticed she had cut her nails short.

“Come on, Neal, let’s get those scratchy things out of your eyes, okay?”

Tigress then carried Neal towards the bathroom, and everyone exchanged a surprised look. Tigress  **loved** her nails, and she’d been incredibly proud of them. 

“Hopefully she’s careful or Neal could end up wearing an eye-patch,” Zack commented.

“Neal would probably rock that to be honest,” Ivy responded. “Pirate Neal.”

Tigress returned a few minutes later with a happily gurgling Neal, and a triumphant look on her face. “The contacts are out!” she announced.

“Have you gotten hold of Player yet, Carmen?” Julia asked.

Carmen shook her head. “No, he’s ignoring my calls. I’m going to give him a while to calm down and then I’ll reach out to him again.”

“He knows this wasn’t his fault, doesn’t he?” Ivy said in concern. “It was just an accident.”

“If he still won’t answer his com by suppertime, I’m going to email him instead.” Carmen said.

“Poor kid,” Ivy said sympathetically. “He must be taking this really hard.”

Roosevelt rolled over onto his stomach and Ivy let out a cry of delight. “You see that! Roose just rolled over all by himself!”

Roose seemed a bit puzzled and he looked up at Ivy and then glanced around, before rolling back over. He then laughed and did it again and again, rolling on the carpet like an overweight beachball. 

“Let’s see if Teddy can do that!” Zack said excitedly, setting him down next to his brother.

Teddy sat there for a long moment and then slowly fell over and remained there, simply staring up at Zack.

“Aw,” Zack said in disappointment. “Come on, Teddy, don’t just lay there! You’re letting your brother beat you!”

Teddy blinked up at him and still didn’t move.

“Where’s your sense of sibling rivalry? Show some pride, man!”

Teddy smiled up at him and Zack sighed and picked him back up. “Maybe I’m doing something wrong?” he said worriedly.

“No, you’ve been doing great!” El Topo complimented him. “Babies take their own time developing and you can’t rush these things.”

Carmen looked down and saw Crackle was asleep and so she took a seat on the couch to better hold him. Chase looked down at Otterman and couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong with him. He couldn’t figure out what it was however, but it left him feeling uneasy. He always seemed a bit dazed and he still wasn’t making direct eye contact which he should have been doing long ago. Deciding to just keep a careful eye on him, Chase set him down on the floor to see what he would do. Otterman laid there for a moment and then looked from side to side as if looking for something. He then began to fuss, and Chase leaned down over him.

“What’s the matter, Sven?” he asked gently.

At the sound of Chase’s voice, Otterman calmed and then looked in Chase’s direction, staring just over Chase’s left shoulder. Chase was confused for a moment, and he waved one of his hands off to one side to see what the baby would do. Otterman didn’t so much as glance at the hand. Chase did it again and again, but the baby didn’t notice.

“He’s blind!” Chase cried out in horror, “Sven is blind!”

Carmen frowned. “How can that be?” she asked in concern, “How would he lose his sight? He wasn’t hurt during the blast, was he?”

Chase was clearly distressed, and he waved his hand again, but Otterman still didn’t look at it. “Maybe it  **was** a reaction to the blast!” he said in distress.

Zack reached over and picked up Otterman’s glasses off the coffee table and looked at them for a moment before holding them out. 

“Get a load of how thick these lenses are!” he exclaimed, “Maybe he’s been practically blind this whole time without his glasses? Maybe that’s just how bad his normal eyesight is?”

Ivy’s eyes widened. “He kept mistaking me for Carmen when I was wearing her coat! Maybe he couldn’t see well enough to see me clearly! That would explain soooo much about Stockholm! I just thought he was really stupid!”

Chase stared at the thick glasses and he felt a stab of pity for the baby. The poor baby was even more helpless than he’d thought and he reached down and picked him back up. The baby must have thought he’d been left all alone when he was put down on the floor, and Chase felt awful. 

“I’m sorry, Sven,” he said softly, “I’ll be more careful from now on, I promise. I won’t leave you alone, I’ll keep you safe.”

Now that he was being held again, Otterman smiled up at Chase who leaned in extremely close hoping the baby would be able to see him. Otterman’s gaze focused on him and then he reached out a tiny hand and placed it on Chase’s stubbly cheek, his blue eyes staring at him in fascination.

“Can you see me?” Chase asked softly.

Otterman giggled as he ran his fingers across the stubble and then he reached a hand towards Chase’s hair, showing he could see him when he was this close. Chase winced as little fingers pulled his hair, but he allowed it with a smile. 

Within an hour every baby except Otterman was able to roll, and a few were even starting to creep on their bellies a bit. Crackle awoke around suppertime, and demanded loudly with a wail that he was hungry and so Carmen decided to try him on babyfood to see if he would eat it. All the babies had handled baby cereal fine, and so the next logical step was creamed vegetables.

She picked up a bottle of baby food from one of the bags, and then grabbed a spoon. Resuming her seat, she leaned him back in her arms and opened the bottle.

“Let’s see how you do with some  **real** food.”

Scooping a tiny bit on the end of the spoon she brought it towards his mouth, clearly worried he was going to choke.

Crackle stared curiously at the green mush, and then eagerly opened his mouth to try it. He then immediately winced at the flavour of the mashed peas and wrinkled his nose in disgust. For some reason this amused Carmen and she laughed at the face he was making.

“Not a fan of peas, Gray?” she asked in amusement. “They’re good for you, and you need to eat them if you want to grow.”

She brought another spoonful towards him and he grimaced, but still opened his mouth, too hungry to refuse. The jar wasn’t very big and after a few spoonfuls, it was gone. Carmen then offered him a bottle of the formula which he accepted.

“His appetite is getting bigger,” she observed, “Hopefully that means he’s about to have a growth spurt.”

Setting Crackle down on the carpet with the other babies, he sat there for a moment and then began crawling away.

“He’s crawling!” Carmen exclaimed in surprise.

Crackle headed across the room as fast as he could go, and he began reaching for an ornament on the bookshelf.

“No, no , no!” Carmen cried out, rushing over to stop him. 

Crackle’s fingers just touched the expensive figurine when he was yanked away by Carmen. Crackle immediately began to cry, reaching out his little arms towards the pretty ornament.

“No, Graham, that’s not a toy!” Carmen scolded, “You’ll break it!”

Crackle struggled and thrashed in her arms as he cried, and she carried him back over to the other babies who were simply watching in curiosity. Setting Crackle down with the others, he immediately tried to crawl away again towards the bookshelf. Carmen snatched him up and then moved the ornament to a higher shelf. Crackle didn’t like this and he had an absolute fit as he was carried back to the couch.

“Sorry, Graham, but you can’t play with that,” Carmen said apologetically to the sobbing baby.

“We don’t have any toys for them, Carm,” Ivy pointed out. “They’re going to start getting bored.”

Chase frowned as he considered this. “What about Zack’s basketball? They could play with that safely.”

“Oh, yeah!” Zack said excitedly, “I have a few different balls! I’ll go get them! Sis, watch Teddy for a minute!”

Zack rushed out of the room to his bedroom and opened the door. His gaze fell on Mime Bomb who was on his own side of the room, headphones on as he used their shared laptop. Zack now realized that they’d barely seen the mime all day, and Zack didn’t think he’d helped at all with the babies.

“Dude, are you  **hiding** in here?” Zack demanded loudly.

Mime Bomb glanced over at him, and when he saw Zack standing in the doorway, he lowered his headphones so he could hear him.

“Have you been home this whole time?” Zack asked, placing his hands on his hips.

Mime Bomb gave a shrug. [[ _ Not the whole time _ ,]] he answered in sign, [[ _ I did do a lot of shopping today _ .]]

Zack frowned at him. “We could really use your help in there,” he told him, “The babies are now starting to crawl and it’s getting a bit hectic.”

Mime Bomb slumped down further in bed, clearly not intending on moving. Zack crossed his arms.

“Mime Bomb! Come on, come out and do your share! We’ve all been working our asses off all day! It’s not fair if you get to just chill in here while the rest of us are dealing with diapers and vomit!”

Mime Bomb stared at him for a moment and then put his headphones back on. 

Zack scowled at him and then signed [[ _ Not cool _ !]]

Mime Bomb lazily signed back [[ _ Sorry _ .]] and turned his attention back to the laptop.

Zack let out a huff, but decided to deal with this later. Opening the closet, he dug around for a minute and then found several balls. Gathering them into his arms, he headed for the door and then paused to glance back at Mime Bomb. Mime Bomb was back to ignoring him and Zack felt himself grow annoyed. Without a single word, Zack threw one of the nerf balls straight at Mime Bomb’s head. He then turned and left the room without waiting for a response.

When he got back to the living room, Theodore smiled up at him and held his arms out to be picked up. Instead Zack sat down on the floor beside him and placed the pile of balls on the carpet. Crackle immediately stopped crying and crawled over to look at the strange new things, grabbing a tennis ball with clumsy hands. Without hesitation, he raised it to his mouth to chew on it.

“Um...is that safe?” Zack asked watching Crackle gnaw on the ball like a puppy.

“As long as pieces don’t come off, it should be fine,” El Topo said, setting Paper Star down with the balls.

When she began crawling over to them, El Topo clapped happily for her and she laughed, grabbing hold of the basketball and pulling it onto her lap. Soon everyone was seated on the floor in a circle with the babies in the center as they played and chewed on the various balls. 

Every now and then a baby would need to be fed or changed, and this was how they discovered just how much Neal hated  **all** vegetables. Tigress ended up getting peas spit directly into her face and no matter how much she tried to coax him, he refused to eat it. Knowing he had to eat something besides formula and pablum, she tried jar after jar of different veggies all with the same result. By the time she got to sweet potatoes, Neal was wary of trying anything and hid his face when she tried bringing a spoonful towards him.

“Come on, Neal,” she said gently, “Just take a little bite for me.”

Neal glanced up at her, his lower lip set in a pout as he made a small noise of discontent.

Tigress chuckled at his face, and ruffled his hair affectionately.

“I thought we’d try a different vegetable okay?”

She showed him what she had and then brought the spoon to his mouth. Neal stared at the orange mush and then reluctantly opened his mouth. The mild taste of the sweet potato was a welcome change, and he eagerly opened his mouth for the next bite, causing Tigress to smile.

“You like sweet potatoes, eh, Neal? That’s good, because they’re very good for you.”

Carmen gave Tigress an amused nudge, and offered the other girl a smile. “You’re getting attached,” she teased.

Tigress flushed, and immediately scowled. “What? Of course not! Just because I hate Neal, doesn’t mean I’d neglect him!”

Carmen’s smile grew wider. “Whatever you say, Sheena.”

Dash seemed a little uncertain over the balls, but he picked up a bright purple golfball and looked at it for a few seconds before carefully rolling it. It rolled over and bumped Moose Boy’s leg who glanced down at it and then picked it up. Seeing that his pretty purple ball had been taken, Dash immediately began to shriek.

“You have to share, Dash,” Le Chevre scolded, picking up a different ball, “How about if you play with this one?”

Dash slapped it out of his hand and screamed louder. Le Chevre then stared at the purple golfball Moose Boy had and reached over to pluck it out of his hands. Dash’s cries cut off immediately when he got his ball back, but then Moose Boy began wailing instead.

Julia gave Le Chevre a look of disapproval and then picked Moose Boy up to comfort him and offer him a different ball. He quieted down fairly quickly and then laughed as Julia began playing with him

Chase was trying to get Otterman to play with a ball, but he was more interested in looking closely at the bright red colour than playing with it. He was sitting unassisted, but he kept his back against Chase as if scared he was going to disappear.

“Sven,” Chase said softly, causing the baby to glance up at him. “Don’t you want to roll the ball?”

“No,” Otterman replied, taking everyone by surprise.

“He spoke!” Zack cried out, “Isn’t he too little to speak?!”

Chase was surprised as well. “He  **is** incredibly young!” he exclaimed proudly. “Most babies don’t say their first word until they’re at least eighteen months old! He doesn’t look older than twelve months!”

Chase then scooped Otterman up and spun him around causing a shriek of laughter. 

“Sven is so smart!” Chase praised, “Already speaking!”

Zack glanced at the twins who just seemed to be getting fatter and fatter instead of doing much of anything and he sighed. He doubted either of them would be the next to speak. Paper Star watched Otterman get fussed over and then she frowned, sending a look up at El Topo. He smiled down at her and patted her on the head affectionately.

“Don’t worry, sweet girl, you’re smart too!” he assured her, “You’ll be speaking in no time!”

“We should probably get the kids cleaned up for bedtime,” Ivy suggested, looking down at the filthy and sticky twins.

“What time do babies normally go to sleep?” Zack asked, glancing at the clock. “It’s only eight.”

“Babies need a lot more sleep than we do,” El Topo pointed out. “They are starting to look pretty sleepy.”

Carmen glanced down at Crackle who was still chewing on the ball with determination. Whereas the others were indeed slowing down and looking sleepy, Crackle was looking as energetic as ever. When he saw Carmen watching him, he smiled up at her and held the drool-covered ball up so she could see. 

“Yes, that’s a very pretty ball, Graham!” she complimented. “Much more fun than glass ornaments, right?”

Crackle threw the ball at Carmen, laughed and then crawled after it excitedly. The ball had landed on the couch and it was out of his reach, and to Carmen’s surprise, he pulled himself up to his feet so he could reach it. Once he had the ball, he fell back onto his bottom but he looked very pleased with himself.

Carmen laughed at the look on his face, and then picked him up. “Alright, we should try to get these little guys to sleep. Maybe they’ll be back to their proper ages when they wake up tomorrow?”

“Boy, are they ever going to be embarrassed!” Zack laughed. “Imagine knowing your enemies changed your diapers for a whole day!”

Ivy snickered at the thought. “I hope they  **do** remember so we can tease them about it!”

“I’m going to beat the shit out of Neal for putting me through this!” Tigress vowed, “He’ll be a grease stain on the sidewalk by the time I’m done with him!”

“It wasn’t exactly his fault,” Chase pointed out, a disapproving frown on his face. “None of them meant for this to happen.”

He glanced down at Otterman in his arms, feeling an odd sense of protectiveness for the blind and helpless baby.

Tigress rolled her eyes and picked Neal up. “You are a nuisance,” she said into his face.

Neal laughed and reached out towards one of her loop earrings. Tigress jerked her head back before he could grab it. 

“Oh no you don’t, you little monkey!” she scolded, getting to her feet.

Everyone picked up their baby and they glanced towards the bathroom, knowing they should give them a bath.

“How are we going to do this?” Carmen asked, “Bathe one at a time, or stick them all in the tub together?”

“No, that could be dangerous,” El topo commented.

“What if we set up a chain of helpers to get them washed and dressed for bed?” Julia suggested. “One person can do the bathing, the next person hands the baby to the person with the towel, who then passes the baby off to be diapered, and then the baby is passed to be dressed? I believe this would be the fastest and most efficient way to get it done.”

Everyone exchanged a look and this seemed like a good idea to them. Heading for the bathroom, they set the supplies up so they could pass the babies from person to person to get bathed. Chase was the one to do the actual bathing and all the babies loved it and splashed and laughed, and Chase was glad he only had to deal with one at a time since they were all active and hard to keep hold of. He bathed baby after baby, handing them off after he was done, and when it was the last baby’s turn, Chase was extra careful since it was Otterman.

The moment Otterman was sat in the water, he stiffened in fear, not knowing what was going on. He began making a tiny distressed sound, and Chase immediately placed a reassuring hand on his head. Chase spoke to him very softly, and gave him a few minutes to adjust to the new sensations, and it didn’t take long for Otterman to begin laughing and babbling like the others. When he was clean, Chase lifted Otterman out of the water and handed him off, feeling exhausted himself from the hard day.

The babies were now clean and dressed for bed, and they were all looking incredibly sleepy. Laying a few thick blankets on the floor of the living room, the babies were laid down and covered with a blanket as they settled down with a bottle. Team Red sat down around the blanket as they spoke to their own babies softly and reassuringly, and it didn’t take long for almost all to fall asleep. Crackle however was still wide awake and wanting to play. He kept rolling around laughing, and Carmen finally picked him up, worried he was going to wake the others.

Wrapping him in a blanket, she cradled him in her arms as she fed him the bottle, and rocked him all the while speaking to him in a calm and quiet manner. Crackle squirmed and laughed for a few minutes, but then finally he began getting drowsy. Carmen kept rocking him and rocking him, and after a good twenty minutes, his eyes finally closed. Waiting a few minutes just to be sure, Carmen carefully laid him down with the others, and then sank down into the couch in exhaustion.

“I am not suited to be a parent.” Le Chevre complained softly from beside her. 

El Topo took a seat beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “You did fantastic, mi amor, you were incredibly patient!”

Le Chevre simply groaned tiredly.

“Who’s going to stay in the living room tonight with the babies?” Ivy asked with a yawn. “Someone’s gotta sleep on the couch, and it’s  **not** gonna be me!”

“Not it!” Zack called out hurriedly.

“I’ll do it,” Chase told them, not wanting to let the children out of his sight for even a moment. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to them.”

Julia patted his shoulder, understanding his fear, and she didn’t say anything. Everyone else seemed unbelievably relieved that he volunteered, and they nodded tiredly.

“Come get us if you need help,” Carmen told him, just wanting to fall into her bed and die for a few hours.

Chase grabbed a blanket from the closet and then began settling himself down on the couch as Team Red stumbled their way towards their room. When Zack entered his bedroom, he saw Mime Bomb was still in the exact same spot and so he whipped a pillow at him as hard as he could, knocking the other boy’s headphones off. Mime Bomb gave him a startled look, but Zack didn’t say a word, simply getting undressed for bed. 

“You’re helping us tomorrow!” Zack informed him with a glare.

Mime Bomb grimaced, but gave him a nod.

Giving his brother one last glare, Zack crawled into bed and then turned off his lamp. The whole team was exhausted and they fell asleep almost the second they closed their eyes.

Chase dreamed of his daughter that night, he dreamed of her large dark eyes, her sweet little smile, and he felt a desperate longing to be a father again. He missed her, and in his dream, he watched her grow up, go to her first day of kindergarten, and then the day she graduated, the day she went to university and the day he walked her down the aisle to be married. Just as he was holding his first grandchild, there was a loud sound of shattering glass that woke him up. 

Glancing around in confusion, he immediately saw there was a baby missing from where the others were sleeping. Looking around for the source of the noise, he found a much bigger Crackle climbing the bookshelf, the shattered ornament laying on the floor.

Chase’s eyes widened. Team Crackle were now toddlers!

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**TBC**

**I can't promise when the next chapter of this will be since I will be focusing on Broken for a while**


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